Crazy Little Thing Called Love
"Crazy Little Thing Called Love" is a song by the rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury in 1979, the track is featured on their 1980 album''The Game, and also appears on the band's compilation album, ''Greatest Hits. The song peaked at number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the group's first number-one single on the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100] in the U.S. on 23 February 1980, remaining there for four consecutive weeks.[2][3]It topped the Australian ARIA Charts for seven weeks.[4] Having composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar, Mercury played rhythm guitar while performing the song live, which was the first time he played guitar in concert.[5] Queen played the song live between 1979 and 1986, and a live performance of the song is recorded in the albums Queen Rock Montreal and Queen at Wembley.[6][7] Since its release, the song has been covered by a number of artists. The song was played live on 20 April 1992 during The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, performed by Robert Plant with Queen.[8] The style of the song was described by author Karl Coryat as rockabilly in his 1999 book titled The Bass Player Book.[1] Contents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Little_Thing_Called_Love# hide *1 Composition *2 Music video *3 Personnel *4 Single release **4.1 Charts **4.2 Year-end charts **4.3 Certifications *5 Live version *6 Dwight Yoakam version **6.1 Charts **6.2 Year-end charts *7 Other cover versions Composition As reported by Freddie Mercury in Melody Maker, 2 May 1981, he composed "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on the guitar in just five to ten minutes.[9] 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' took me five or ten minutes. I did that on the guitar, which I can't play for nuts, and in one way it was quite a good thing because I was restricted, knowing only a few chords. It's a good discipline because I simply had to write within a small framework. I couldn't work through too many chords and because of that restriction I wrote a good song, I think. —Freddie Mercury The song was written by Mercury as a tribute to Elvis Presley.[10] Queen drummer Roger Taylor added in an interview that Mercury wrote it in 10 minutes while lounging in a bath in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich during one of their extensive Munich recording sessions.[11] Mercury took it to the studio shortly after writing it and presented it to Taylor and John Deacon.[5][12] The three of them, with their new producer Mack, recorded it at Musicland Studios in Munich. The entire song was reportedly recorded in less than half an hour (although Mack says it was six hours).[13] Having written "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on guitar and played an acoustic rhythm guitar on the record, for the first time ever Mercury played guitar in concerts, for example at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium, London in 1985.[5][14] Music video The music video for the song was filmed at Trillion Studios in September 1979 and directed by Dennis De Vallance featuring four dancers and a floor of hands. An alternate version featuring alternate angles, out-takes and backstage footage from the original video shoot was included on the Days Of Our Lives DVD and Blu-ray releases. Personnel *Freddie Mercury - lead and backing vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar, handclaps *Brian May - lead guitar, backing vocals, handclaps *Roger Taylor - drums, backing vocals, handclaps *John Deacon - bass guitar, handclaps Although Mercury would play an electrified twelve-string on stage (and later a six-string electric), in the studio he recorded it with a six-string acoustic with external mics. Freddie Mercury also played the original guitar solo on a version which has been lost.[15] Single release The "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" single hit number two in the UK Singles Chart in 1979, and became the first U.S. number-one hit for the band, topping the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100 Billboard Hot 100] for four weeks.[2][3]The song also topped the Australian ARIA charts for seven consecutive weeks from 1 March to 12 April 1980.[4] The UK release had We Will Rock You (live) as the b-side and America, Australia, Canada had Spread Your Wings (live). | style="width:604.375px;vertical-align:top;"| Year-end charts Certifications |} Live version Whenever the song was played live, the band added a solid rock ending that extended the under-three-minute track to over five minutes. Brian May added a long guitar solo, while Freddie Mercurycontinued on the rhythm guitar, Roger Taylor on drums, John Deacon on the bass guitar and either Morgan Fisher or Spike Edney playing piano. Because of this extended aspect, most fans prefer the live versions to the studio recording.[according to whom?] An example of this is on the CD/DVD Set Live At Wembley Stadium, where the song runs over six minutes. Dwight Yoakam version |} American country music singer Dwight Yoakam included a cover of the song on his 1999 album Last Chance for a Thousand Years: Dwight Yoakam's Greatest Hits from the 90's.[18] Yoakam's version was released as a single, peaking at number 12 on the U.S. country singles charts in 1999. It was also used in a television commercial for clothing retailer Gap at the time of the album's release. The music video was directed by Yoakam. This version appears in the movie The Break-Up (2006), starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. Charts "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" debuted at number 65 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of 1 May 1999. Year-end charts Other cover versions *In 1980 by The Chipmunks on their comeback album, Chipmunk Punk.[25] *In 1980, singer Jimmy "Orion" Ellis included an Elvis Presley sounding cover in his album "Rockabilly". Fellow Elvis impersonator James Brownalso performs a cover of the song in concert. *A Spanish cover titled Casi Loco Por Tu Amor, performed by the Venezuelan rock singer Pablo Dagnino, was included in the album Tributo a Queen: Los Grandes del Rock en Español (1997).[26] *In October 1999 by American country-rock singer Juice Newton on her album American girl.[27] *Canadian pop/big band singer Michael Bublé covered the song for his self-titled 2003 debut album.[28] *The Brian Setzer Orchestra put a faster tempo, neo-swing version on their 2003 album Jump, Jive an' Wail.[29] *British pop rock/pop punk band McFly covered the song for their "Room on the 3rd Floor" single.[30] (2004) *American singer Josh Kelley recorded a cover for the 2005 album Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen.[31] *Performed on season 5 of American Idol by Fantasia Barrino, David Radford, Taylor Hicks, and Tim Urban. (2006) *Diana Ross covered the song on her 2007 album I Love You. Brian May plays guitar on this version.[32] *American pop rock band Maroon 5 covered the song and it came out as a bonus track in some versions of the 2010 album Hands All Over.[33] *In the eleventh season of American Idol Joshua Ledet covered this song and caused music star Jennifer Lopez to call him her "favorite part of the show." (2012) *On the twelfth season of American Idol, contestants Angela Miller and Lazaro Arbos performed the song as a duet during the Top 7 episode, though they received much negative feedback due to Arbos forgetting the lyrics. (2013) *Drake Bell covered this song in his 2014 album Ready, Steady, Go!.[34] *A cover was recorded in 2014 for White Castle restaurants. Category:Queen (band) songs Category:1979 songs Category:1979 singles Category:1999 singles Category:Number-one singles in Australia Category:Number-one singles in New Zealand Category:Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles Category:Dwight Yoakam songs Category:Elvis Presley tributes Category:RPM Country Tracks number-one singles Category:Songs written by Freddie Mercury Category:EMI Records singles Category:Reprise Records singles Category:Alvin and the Chipmunks songs Category:Rockabilly songs Category:Song recordings produced by Reinhold Mack Category:Song recordings produced by Pete Anderson Category:Elektra Records singles Category:Hollywood Records singles